This is so good! I credit the MSBH with turning me on to savory tarts. They are really very easy to make if you’ve got some pie or tart dough already made and they just seem so sophisticated compared to most dinners.
Another nice aspect is that you can (and I think you should) bake the tart and then allow it to cool completely prior to serving it. So if you’re having some people over and don’t want to have to time everything so dinner’s ready at a certain time – or you want to leave time to make other dishes and take care of other preparations – you can make this hours and hours earlier and they’ll be just fine warmed up a bit in the oven a few minutes before serving.
This recipe calls for a recipe of pâte brisée to be formed in a tart pan.
Whole cloves of garlic are slow-roasted in a little foil pocket in the oven. These are mashed up and the resulting garlic paste is spread on the bottom of the tart crust.
The tart dough is not pre-baked; it’s frozen and the garlic paste and a layer of grated Fontina cheese go on the bottom of the frozen crust.
Then sliced tomatoes are layered around on top of the garlic and cheese. I wish I had taken a photo of this, as I used red, yellow, and green heirloom tomatoes and they looked so pretty. I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it.
More Fontina cheese is placed on top of the tomatoes, and the entire tart is drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. Fairly simple stuff but the end result is so impressive.
The tart baked up, smelling delicious the entire time. I was worried the tomato juices would leak out everywhere and make the crust soggy, but that really wasn’t a problem. I think the thick garlic paste keeps the bottom of the crust separate from the filling, allowing it to remain crisp and flaky.
The tomatoes do remain very soft after baking and so slicing takes some time and care.
It tastes so, so good! I will be making this a lot this summer as heirloom tomatoes become more available. The fontina cheese and the tomatoes are the primary flavors and the pâte brisée provides the perfect platform, allowing those flavors to really shine through.
I can’t believe I haven’t attempted this yet. This looks so delicious!